According to the Kommersant daily, the government on February 26 addressed the departments with instructions on preparing draft laws on the 2017 budget and planning period for 2018-2019

MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. The Russian government is returning to a three-year financial planning cycle, Kommersant daily reported Wednesday. According to the newspaper, the government on behalf of the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov on February 26 addressed the departments with instructions on preparing draft laws on the 2017 budget and planning period for 2018-2019.

The wording of points of the plan shows that the annual budget the government started to use due to a sudden drop in income and changes in the oil market, has exhausted itself. Although technically the government can come back to this format (previously new laws were adopted for this purpose that suspended certain provisions of the Budgetary Code for a period of 2015 and 2016), a three-year budget is already being prepared.

According to Kommersant, Economic Development Ministry on March 1 sent guidelines to departments on allocating provisions for 2017-2019; by March 18 departments must submit of the primary projections and statistics to the Finance Ministry of and the Energy Ministry, and proposals on insurance contributions for 2017-2019 to the Labor Ministry.

The government is going to discuss the budget structure in two stages, the newspaper said. The first - the Economic Development Ministry presents 2017-2019 scenario to the budgetary committee before March 29, and the Central Bank sends proposals for a three-year monetary policy to the Finance Ministry of and the Ministry of Economic Development on April 22. In May-June the budget process will return to its usual schedule, revised and is fully realistic proposals from the Economic Development Ministry and other departments will be sent to the government in June. Projections for budget expenditures will be prepared in June and July. The government must approve draft budget on September 15. The entire budget package of documents for 2017-2019 will be prepared on September 21.